Surfing the internet in search of the ideal newsletter design size?
Well, well, it’s time to take a sigh of relief because this article has the answers to all your questions.
81% of B2B content marketers say that sending email newsletters is their preferred method of content distribution. But this distribution of newsletters can only be fruitful if they display perfectly on all screens and email clients.
For that, you’ll need to understand what are the right measurements for designing a newsletter.
And this article is hands down the best source to know these measurements. You’ll believe us when you read below.
But, before we start discussing the technicalities, let’s quickly talk about what a newsletter is and why it is so significant.
What Is an Email Newsletter?
A newsletter is a type of email sent to your subscribers from time to time to let them know about updates, tips, or promotions related to your product or service. The time interval for sending newsletters can be weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc., depending on your choice.
Sending newsletters is an efficient and cost-effective way of communicating with your audience about your product or service.
They can help you connect with your customers, boost engagement of your newsletter, and increase your brand’s credibility.
But this can only happen if your newsletters render perfectly on every device and across all email clients. To do so, let’s quickly run by the recommended dimensions for newsletter design size.
What Is the Ideal Newsletter Design Size?
We all had a friend who used to fit perfectly among different social groups in high school naturally and effortlessly, remember?
That’s exactly how your newsletter should fit across all email clients and screens. So, let’s make this happen by quickly learning what ideal newsletter design sizes are;
Width
Let’s start with the newsletter template’s width.
Over the years it has been established that the standard width for a newsletter template should be 600 px. And it is arguably still the golden rule, you’ll figure out why in a while.
The major reason for using a 600 px width was that previously, screen resolutions only supported that. However, this claim is no longer valid because many email clients and screens now support an email width greater than 600 px.
But there are certain things that ‘might’ happen if you opt for a width greater than 600 px.
That is, sources claim that if your newsletter’s width is beyond 640 px, Gmail will not show your email’s background colors.
On the other hand, some say that Yahoo does not render newsletters wider than 650 px, and Outlook has trouble displaying background for newsletters with a width greater than 800 px.
Many of these claims have been proven untrue, and you can only find this out by testing your emails across all email service providers.
However, to avoid any issues, the width of your newsletter should be between 600 to 650 px. And it’s good luck that email design tools like Unlayer create pre-designed email templates that are by default 600 px wide.
So, you can either go for a maximum safe width of 700 px or go for wider emails by testing them on all email service providers.
For the record, this is what a standard 600 px newsletter template looks like.
Do you like what you see? Then start designing right away.
Height
Now let’s talk about what your newsletter’s height should be.
You have all the liberty to make your email as long as you want it. But when you decide your newsletter’s height, you need to understand that longer emails have a lesser chance of being entirely read by your recipients.
Ideally, the length of your newsletter should be between 1,500 to 3,000 px. And, you should include all the important information between the first 350 to 500 px.
We’re just saying this because humans have a short attention span.
Also, longer emails enable the vertical scroll bars on mobile devices, which takes up some space of your email, causing the email to appear lengthy.
To avoid a lengthy email, you can use the option to hide some elements on mobile devices using Unlayer.
File size
Now let’s talk about your newsletter’s weight or size.
If you want to prevent your email from getting clipped or landing in the spam box, you must be careful about not creating an extensive email.
It’s recommended that your newsletter’s size should not be beyond 10 MB. Each email service provider may have its own limits but 10 MB is the standard.
You can keep the email size light by using fewer images, GIFs, or videos in your email.
We understand that you’d like to make your newsletter as presentable as possible by adding images of your products. But it’s better to use fewer images than to have your email clipped, isn't it?
Preheader and header size
Moving on from the basics, now let’s talk about your newsletter’s preheader and header size.
A newsletter’s preheader is the short text placed on top of it. You can use it to attract your customers with offers or redirect them to other sites. The height of your email’s preheader should be between 20 to 60 px, while the width can exceed up to the template’s width.
Now let’s shed some light on your newsletter’s header size.
To be clear, we’re referring to the size of the email header inside the newsletter. It is a significant part of your newsletter and deserves the right amount of attention, creativity, and space.
Your newsletter’s header is recommended to be 60 to 70 px high normally. And in case you want to up your game by adding elements like menus or timers, then your header can be up to 200 px high.
Below is an email from Kate Spade for the preheader and header size reference.
There’s a preheader that says “free ground shipping if you spend $175 or more”, followed by a huge header that includes a logo, some text, and a promotional discount.
Size and number of content blocks
We understand that limiting creativity to fall under a recommended newsletter design size is a real bummer. But if you really think about it, there are plenty of other ways to show how cool your newsletter is.
Having said that, each of the content blocks of your email newsletter should be around 200 to 300 px high. And altogether, these content blocks should be about 900 to 1,200 px high.
Content blocks consist of all important elements of your email like email copy, GIFs, videos, and Call To Action (CTA) buttons, so adjust them accordingly.
Footer size
And now the footer of your email newsletter.
The footer of your newsletter consists of significant elements like unsubscribe links, your legal information, social links, etc. But it doesn’t mean that you make it really big. After all, it’s the area where you conclude your email.
Ideally, your footer’s height should be between 200 to 300 px maximum.
CTA button
Your CTA buttons are the real game-changers of your email as they are responsible for all the conversions.
The bigger and more prominent your CTA button is, the better. But obviously not so big that it loses its meaning. There is no suggested width or length for a CTA button, so you can choose its size to match the rest of your newsletter.
Just remember one thing, when you view a newsletter on a mobile, the content gets relatively smaller and harder to interact with.
So, in order to resolve this issue, make sure that you create bigger buttons for emails created for mobiles.
And to be clear, when I say bigger, I mean comparatively because the maximum size for CTAs in mobiles should be 44 x 44 px.
Look how prominent and adequately sized is the CTA button in this email from Leesa.
Image size
Images in email newsletters play an important role in beautifying them.
But these images will only look pretty if used in moderation and they do not sabotage your newsletter's deliverability.
Technically speaking, there are no standard dimensions for images used in newsletters. It can be as wide as your newsletter and as high as your campaign requires it to be.
But when thinking of the height of the images in the newsletter, keep in mind that the “above the fold” part is between 300 to 500 pixels high.
These are all the dimensions you need to know before creating the perfect newsletter. By the way, if you like efficient and cost-effective ways of creating email newsletters, you should definitely opt for Unlayer.
Read below to know how you can create newsletters with Unlayer.
Create Newsletters With Unlayer in Just a Few Clicks
You can either choose to hire a developer or designer to create high-performing HTML newsletters or you can go with Unlayer’s pre-designed and responsive newsletter templates.
If I were in your place, I’d definitely go for the latter because it’s quicker, cheaper, more presentable, and also because;
Step 1: Decide a purpose
You first need to plan out why you are sending this newsletter and what response do you want from your recipients.
You can pick any type of newsletter for your campaign, and the intent will judge what the structure of your newsletter should be, so map that down clearly.
Since you’re planning out things, it’s wise to take inspiration from somewhere at this point. And when it comes to designing eye-catching newsletters, there’s no greater place than Unlayer’s pre-designed newsletter templates to take inspiration from.
Design Attractive Newsletters With Unlayer
Step 2: Select dimensions
Well, now that you clearly understand and know all the ideal newsletter design sizes, this step should literally be a piece of cake for you.
Decide the measurements for your newsletter to get started.
Step 3: Build body
Next, you can build your email’s body by adding email copy and other interactive elements. You can simply drag and drop the features and adjust their properties according to your choice.
Once you’re at it, you’ll realize how smoothly you can create a newsletter with Unlayer.
And as we told you earlier, you can also hide some elements on your mobile or desktop according to your choice. This allows you to prevent rendering issues.
Step 4: Include footer
When you’re done building your body, create a footer. This footer can consist of your unsubscribe links, legal address, thank you notes, social media links, etc.
Speaking of social media links, Unlayer loves to give you control over your design. You can easily customize the design of your social links in Unlayer’s editor.
Remember to design it carefully as subscribers notice almost everything, even if it is at the bottom.
Step 5: Preview and send
Tada! Your email is ready. Now preview it and analyze its responsiveness across all devices.
Well, it’s just a formality here because all of Unlayer’s email templates are responsive on all devices and have been tested by Email on Acid beforehand.
Once you’re done designing your newsletter, you can send them through an email service provider of your choice.
And this is how you can design newsletters with Unlayer in just 5 simple steps.
If you need more clarity on this, watch this video to learn how you can create newsletters with Unlayer in under 5 minutes.
7 Best Practices for Designing Newsletters
Making your newsletter stand out and out-perform all other email marketing campaigns is not that easy.
You’ll need to be careful of other measures besides newsletter design size. And to make sure you do that, we listed down the best practices that you need to follow;
1. Choose a simple layout
There's no strict rule for this, but a multi-column or complex layout results in loading issues.
So, to be safe, it's better if you go for simpler layouts.
2. Represent your brand
Your newsletter design alone should be enough to show who they belong to. It must be your number 1 brand representative.
You can use your brand’s colors or logo subtly yet effectively. Just play around with your creativity.
3. Design from the customer’s viewpoint
They say, “two-thirds of what we see is behind our eyes.” This means that whatever we see is actually a result of our perception.
So, your reader might not look at your newsletter the way you see it. A best practice to avoid this will be to create newsletter designs from your customer's perspective. Think about what your customers would like to see and then design.
4. Use high-end images
Imagine creating a top-notch newsletter design with low-quality images. That doesn’t sound right, no?
So ensure that you add only high-end images in your email to maintain consistent and high quality newsletters.
5. Ensure responsiveness
Statistics say that 85% of emails are viewed on mobile devices. This means the lion’s share of your recipients view their emails from mobiles.
So, your designed newsletter template must be mobile-friendly and responsive on all devices, just like all newsletter templates from Unlayer are.
6. Add prominent CTAs
Your CTAs are your gateways to good revenue.
So when you add them to your newsletter, make sure they are prominent, adequately placed, and possibly in contrast with the rest of your newsletter design.
Keep in mind that your CTA should be the star of your email.
7. Test and analyze
Needless to say, this exercise is extremely important.
You must continuously run A/B tests on your newsletters to figure out what works best for your newsletter campaign’s performance.
Don’t forget to incorporate these best practices into your newsletter campaign if you want to get the best results.
Final Thoughts
That’s it. I’m sure that this article took away all those frown lines off your forehead. After all, finding the right newsletter design size wasn’t easy.
Now, you can simply send newsletters without worrying about rendering issues by keeping these measurements in your mind.
Feel free to ask any questions related to this article in the comment section below.
